Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Reporter says NFL should follow XFL's lead on coaching diversity

By Michael Gallagher | Last updated 7/12/23

While the NFL excels at many things, it’s clear the league falls short when it comes to diversity among front-office and head-coaching hires.

And many, including NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith, have offered alternatives to the little-effective Rooney Rule, The Athletic’s Jim Trotter suggests the league could learn a thing or two from the XFL.

“The beauty of the XFL is that it has shown itself to be an equal-opportunity employer,” Trotter wrote. “Perhaps that stems from the league’s current owners having diverse backgrounds. … The league has diverse representation in its management and along the sideline, and it embraces the idea of being a developmental league for players, coaches and executives. A big question now is whether NFL owners view it the same way. Will success in the XFL actually lead to greater opportunities for minorities in decision-making positions within the NFL?”

Herm Edwards and @Hawk discussed the potential need to revamp the Rooney Rule.

"There's 13 teams that have not hired a Black head coach yet. ... In 1977, when I entered the NFL ..., there were only seven Black coaches ... [and] they were just assistant coaches." —Herm Edwards pic.twitter.com/ylTrxiQCgG
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) July 7, 2023

The NFL has relied on the Rooney Rule for the last two decades to incentivize its teams and owners to give more opportunities to minority candidates. However, there are just three Black head coaches (and three others who are Muslim, Latino and multiracial) in a league where 56.4 percent of its players are Black.

According to Trotter, 2023 will be the fifth straight year that the NFL will have three or fewer coaches who identify as Black.

“When you’re accountable to no one but yourself, you can do what you want in any manner you see fit,” Trotter said. “The [NFL’s] history has taught us that.”

Of the eight head coaches in the XFL, four of them are Black — Anthony Blevins, Reggie Barlow, Hines Ward and Terrell Buckley. Barlow is the league’s reigning Coach of the Year. The upstart league may not garner the national spotlight or attract as big of an audience as the NFL does, but to Trotter’s point, it gives minority head -coaching candidates a platform to advocate for themselves.

“The XFL gives me the chance to show what I can do, to show I can lead men,” Blevins told Trotter.

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